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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27578909">tea and sympathy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadetDru/pseuds/CadetDru'>CadetDru</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>you can lean on me [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Asexual Relationship, Awkward Conversations, Boyfriends, Canon Asexual Character, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Set in Episodes 159-160 | Scottish Safehouse Period (The Magnus Archives), THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:48:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,093</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27578909</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadetDru/pseuds/CadetDru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The safe house was lovely.  It was the loveliest place either Jon or Martin had ever seen. It had a living room and kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, closets and cupboards. It existed, it wasn't in London, and they were together. Hastily packed bags were thrown down. They made a quick pass through the place. Martin put fresh sheets on the double bed, fully intending on getting a good night's sleep before trying to do anything else. </p><p>"We need to talk," Jon said, standing in the doorway and uselessly supervising. He couldn't bring himself to step into the room, not yet.</p><p>"Has anyone ever told you that you have a horrible sense of timing?" Martin said, tucking the sheets into the bed neatly with hospital corners. It was sheer habit. He didn't look up.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>you can lean on me [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032606</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>253</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>tea and sympathy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The safe house was lovely.It was the loveliest place either Jon or Martin had ever seen. It had a living room and kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, closets and cupboards. It existed, it wasn't in London, and they were together. Hastily packed bags were thrown down. They made a quick pass through the place. Martin put fresh linens on the double bed, fully intending on getting a good night's sleep before trying to do anything else.</p><p>"We need to talk," Jon said, standing in the doorway and uselessly supervising. He couldn't bring himself to step into the room, not yet.</p><p>"Has anyone ever told you that you have a horrible sense of timing?" Martin said, tucking the sheets neatly with hospital corners. It was sheer habit. He didn't look up.</p><p>Jon nodded, hoping Martin was at least looking at him out of the corner of his eye. "Peter did, in the Lonely. He said we haven't spent time together, just being normal people. That we're just fixated on the idea of one another."</p><p>"Jon, stop," Martin said. His hands were shaking now. "I heard all of it from him while you were..."</p><p>"Martin, I'm so sorry," Jon said. "After everything you've been through...</p><p>"You can't break up with me in Scotland," Martin said.</p><p>"Martin!" Jon said, thoroughly shocked that his new boyfriend would think such a thing. He had a secondary shock that he was mentally referring to Martin as his boyfriend.</p><p>Martin sighed and slumped further, the obvious eye roll not fully visible to Jon."I mean, obviously, you can break up with me whenever you like. The world will probably not end. I'm not ruling it out, given everything. And, now that I say it, you've not... we've not... we're not actually dating, yet, are we?" He looked over at Jon. A frown was deepening on his face.</p><p>"I'm not trying to break up with you," Jon snapped. The conversation wasn't going as he'd intended or as he'd feared. </p><p>"Oh, good." Martin smiled with genuine relief. "Let's have some tea." He walked towards the door, steps slowing as Jon didn't get out of his way. "Jon?" he prompted.</p><p>"There's only one bed," Jon said.</p><p>"Right," Martin said. He looked over his shoulder, as if to count again. "I know." He looked back at Jon.</p><p>Jon nodded, leaned forward, and kissed Martin. He pulled back, enough to talk. Martin looked as confused as ever. "I should say... I will say. Sex isn't something that I've ever been interested in. So I hope you understand that this...indifference... is in no way an indication of the depth of my romantic feelings."</p><p>"Alright," Martin said, slightly dazed.</p><p>Jon kissed him again, just as gently and proprietarily as their first kiss. And it had been their first kiss, he realized. "And there's only one bed, so I just wanted to be sure you were alright sharing it with me considering..."</p><p>"Oh," Martin said slowly."Oh! That's fine."</p><p>"It's...fine?"</p><p>"I'm not sleeping on the couch.You're not sleeping on the couch. You've just pulled me out of the Lonely. We're both exhausted. I just want to fall asleep next to you, preferably sooner rather than later."</p><p>"All I want to do is to run away with you," Jon said, hoping honesty was romantic enough.</p><p>"That's good, as we are mid-running-away," Martin said. "And you've suggested the idea before." He looked over Jon's shoulder at the vast expanse of cottage beyond. </p><p>Jon stepped back. "You wouldn't blind yourself for me."</p><p>"Don't start," Martin said."One serious conversation at a time. This one is, what, ground rules?" Martin bustled around the kitchen, examining the contents. He talked as he looked. "State our intentions?"</p><p>"Your feelings for me have always been rather clear," Jon said, wryly and smugly and all too assured in his own status.</p><p>"No spooky Eye knowledge," Martin said.</p><p>"Not necessary here."</p><p>"And that's what Elias said," Martin said. "Before the Unknowing and everything got worse. And worse."</p><p>"I'm sorry," Jon said.He couldn't out anything else into words. </p><p>"And now, I don't even know what to think.I mean... we've not had our first date. Or we've had several dates back in your stalking and stabbing phase."</p><p>"I was being stabbed, that hardly counts as my stabbing phase."</p><p>"Not going to argue the stalking part?" Martin said.</p><p>"As ever, I have no defense."</p><p>Martin put the kettle on. "God, I was so worried about you then.Still am, of course. There was always so much going on! And you hated me!Honestly, I didn't love you back then.Wouldn't let myself.I'm sorry."</p><p>"You're allowed not to have always adored me. I wasn't...adorable...then."</p><p>"Is that a pun?" Martin said.</p><p>"Wordplay at best," Jon said.</p><p>"My plan had always been that I was going to quietly pine until the moment was just right. That still is my plan, technically." </p><p>"Sorry to throw a spanner into the works, but you can't pine for me any more."</p><p>"But I've gotten so good at it!" Martin complained. There was a large grain of truth at its core.He was scared of such a big change.Pining after Jon had been a defining characteristic of his life ever since he'd started in the Archives.</p><p>"You can hardly pine for your boyfriend when you're living in a small cottage," Jon pointed out, being the voice of reason as he had used to be.</p><p>"My boyfriend?" Martin repeated.</p><p>"I didn't..." Jon said, and that was as far as that sentence got.</p><p>"You want to be my boyfriend? You are my boyfriend?"</p><p>There was a very interesting spot in the floor, by Martin's shoe.Jon inspected it thoroughly from across the room. "Aren't I?"</p><p>He couldn't actually hear Martin's pulse from across the room.He wasn't using any kind of eldritch powers.He just could feel his own heart beat faster and assumed the same was happening for Martin. </p><p>Martin hadn't said anything.Jon could hear him breathing, knew that he was actually alive.He just wasn't talking, wasn't moving, wasn't keeping himself busy.Jon looked up at him. Martin was staring at him.</p><p>"Aren't you mine?" Jon asked, hopeful and confused and terrified. </p><p>Martin slowly approached and hugged him."Of course," he said directly into Jon's ear, just a touch too loud. His voice was cracking. He was starting to cry. Jon could hear the tears. Martin abruptly pulled back. "Tea," he said, pulling himself together. "I'll... you can go sit down.I'll have the tea in a minute."</p>
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